Lifeguards

A Matter of Maturity

The feds recently rescinded a ban on 15-year-old lifeguards. But some question whether these youths are ready for the responsibility. Our special report looks at what science and experience have to say

Robin Patrick is anxiously searching for qualified lifeguards. Her waterpark opened
on time for Memorial Day, but she’s still short-staffed. The
current guards are working extra to cover the holes while Patrick
busily trains new guards during the evenings. “We’ve
always kind of struggled to have enough guards, but this year is
the worst,” says the general manager of Water World and
aquatics director for the city of Dothan, Ala.

Despite the
shortage, the city holds firm to its employment policy: No
15-year-olds. While Patrick has contemplated appealing to allow
15-year-old lifeguards, she personally hesitates hiring anyone
younger than 16.

She’s
concerned guards that young may not be ready to handle the
responsibilities of the position. Aquatics professionals in most
developed nations agree with that thinking. Indeed, the United
States is one of only a few countries that allow 15-year-old
guards.

Many U.S. aquatics
specialists, especially waterpark operators, say trained teens are
a critical component in the lifeguard profession. In fact, nearly
30 percent of waterparks allow 15-year-old guards, according to a
nationwide Aquatics International survey. These operators
argue that guarding is more about training than
age.

“One, two or
three years is not going to make a huge difference. The whole
system is your program and how you create a good professional,
regardless of age,” says Farhad Madani, past-president of the
National Recreation & Park Association’s National Aquatic
Branch.

Research suggests
it’s not that simple. Fifteen-year-olds tend to lack some
cognitive development that’s key to lifeguarding. But because
the human brain is so complex, even the science isn’t
definitive. Still, other aquatics professionals say experience
tells them that the younger the guard, the lower the maturity
level. The real question, they say, is why the aquatics industry
insists on hiring guards so young —and risking potential
liability. That answer, it seems, is as complex as the human
brain.

15 in America There’s little
question how America feels about giving responsibilities to
15-year-olds. Rights such as drinking, voting and driving are
limited to the over-15 age group. In most states, the minimum
driving age is 16. As with lifeguarding, driving applicants must
pass a series of tests to get a license. Even so, two out of five
deaths among U.S. teenagers are caused by motor vehicle crashes,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Injury Prevention
in Atlanta. The CDC says younger teens underestimate hazardous
situations or may not be able to recognize them as easily as older
drivers.

PROS &CONS

Operators must weigh many factors when deciding who to hire for lifeguarding positions.
Consider these pros and cons of hiring 15-year-olds:

Pros

Many available

Live under parental rules

Can be certified and ready to work

Likely to come back for next few summers with gained
experience

Cons

Limited work hours

Not allowed to dispatch at tops of slides

Not allowed to handle chemicals

Don’t have license to drive

May not have mental maturity to handle
responsibilities

Appear youthful to others and not taken as
seriously

They are also more self-conscious. Tom Griffiths recalls the first time he tried to
implement the five-minute scan. Many younger guards were too
embarrassed to stand up in their chairs to perform it. “They
didn’t want to bring attention to themselves,” recalls
Griffiths, Ed.D., director of aquatics and safety officer for
athletics at Penn State University in University Park, Pa.

“People have
realized that some of the jobs, whether it’s a lifeguard or
helping supervise in some other capacity, may be calling on
executive functions or integrative functions that require judgment,
insight and experience in order to respond optimally,” she
says. “It’s exactly those kinds of functions that seem
to be developing more slowly in the human brain and have not been
fully achieved in adolescents.”

Yurgelun-Todd
conducted an MRI brain study that asked teens and adults to
identify a series of emotions on a face. All the adults correctly
identified one facial expression as fear, but many teens read it as
shock or anger. Her data also shows younger teens responded
differently than did older ones.

Laurence Steinberg,
Ph.D., backs up those findings. “There is good evidence of
greater maturation in the frontal lobes of the brain at 18 as
opposed to 15,” says the professor of psychology at Temple
University in Philadelphia and author of You and Your
Adolescent (HarperCollins, 1997). The frontal lobes, he
explains, comprise the region of the brain responsible for judgment
and decision-making. “We also know that 18-year-olds have
better impulse control, are better able to think ahead and are
better at planning, which would be consistent with frontal lobe
maturation.”

However,
Yurgelun-Todd says that maturity is difficult to map, especially on
a brain. “Can 15-year-olds handle being a lifeguard? Probably
some can, and some can’t. [A guard has] to make a consistent
number of judgments and maintain [an] emotional state to be calm
and supportive. I think that takes a fairly mature individual.
There may be some adolescents who may not have that level of
maturity.”

This explains why
the courts often debate whether adolescents should be tried as
adults or children, says Reed Larson, Ph.D., a professor at the
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. “There is clearly
no one age at which adolescents as a group become
responsible,” he says. “But age is much less important
than individual differences, so using an age cutoff should not make
people feel comfortable that other checks on a lifeguard’s
character do not need to be made.”

Other safety and
rescue professions, such as emergency medical technicians,
firefighters and police, require a minimum age of
18.

The Canada
Lifesaving Society, the national certifying agency in Canada,
recently conducted a comprehensive study to determine a minimum
hiring age. After educational and psychological research, as well
as a worldwide inquiry of minimum ages in other countries, it
decided 16 was the appropriate age. Some provinces and individual
facilities require lifeguards to be at least 17 or even 18.
According to Executive Director Rick Haga, only about two or three
nations, including the United States, set the minimum age at
15.

The individuality factor

But no matter what
science may suggest, many experts who have worked with the age
group say 15-year-olds are mature enough to handle a lifeguard
position.

“Across the
entire population, you will probably see greater development in a
17- or 18-year-old than a 14- or 15-year-old,” says Dr. David
Markenson, chair of the Advisory Committee for Safety of the
American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. “But that
doesn’t tell me about an individual.”

Others agree.
“I started at 15 years old,” says Madani, who is now
assistant director of the Parks and Recreation Department in
Austin, Texas. “It really depends on agencies to create a
program that makes a 15-year-old the same as a 16-year-old and
17-year-old.”

In fact, Madani says
that hiring some 18-year-olds runs into a discipline issue.
“They party more,” he says. “They have more stuff
to do. They have more freedom.” Whereas, 15-year-olds live by
their parents’ rules. The adults still drive their kids to
work, so they are ready for duty on time. In addition, Madani has
the parents’ help in shaping the guard to be a responsible,
mature grownup.

“It’s a
great first job as long as nothing happens,” says Griffiths
of Penn State University.

But nothing should
happen at a well-operated facility, say others. At least, nothing a
guard would have to handle alone. “A 15-year-old — or
any lifeguard — who works within a well-supervised and
managed environment would be part of a risk-management system, and
would never be solely responsible for a life-and-death
situation,” says Jill White, founder of Starfish Aquatics
Institute based in Savannah, Ga.

Agencies such as
White’s argue that they make sure their guards are
well-trained and rehearsed at responding to any emergency situation
at an aquatics facility. They say careful supervision by a more
experienced employee is the key to bringing up good
guards.

That supervision is
what’s supposed to keep guards’ eyes on the water and
their focus on ensuring safety, experts say. At facilities where
supervision is limited, however, young guards have been seen in a
less than professional light. At one Las Vegas hotel, Aquatics
International staff members witnessed young guards chatting
with other guards while on the stand, sending text-messages on
their cell phones or even wearing jeans. It’s this lack of
supervision, White warns, that fails to protect teen lifeguards
from “an irresponsible burden.”

In addition, younger
guards should start with something easier, such as a flat-water
pool or shallow-water attraction, Carroll says. “We
don’t feel that if you’re 15, working in deeper
waterpark environments or open water [is a good starting
point],” he says.

In a waterpark or
multiuse leisure facility, guards are divided into several zones
and constantly monitored by on-deck supervisors, White says. They
are also continually receiving training and performance audits, and
are responsible for a smaller, specific area of water that
typically is not deep water.

Currently, the U.S.
Labor Department restricts the number of hours worked by a
15-year-old to 40 hours a week during nonschool days, and no more
than eight hours per day. Some states and local jurisdictions may
have even more restrictions. Madani’s 15-year-old staff
members can work up to 25 hours a week. They don colored fanny
packs to distinguish them from older lifeguards.

Many say that
starting a teenager early with a junior lifeguard program eases
them into the job and environment better. The setup exposes youths
to the rigors and training of lifeguards without putting them into
rescue positions.

“There are
lots of things that can be done that don’t require a
lifeguard,” says Alison Osinski, president of Aquatic
Consulting Services in San Diego. Osinski, a firm believer
lifeguards should be at least 18, lists the following as
appropriate for 15-year-olds: maintenance, customer service, rule
enforcement, being on the lookout, assisting kids on the play
equipment, handing out inner tubes. At the same time, they can gain
experience working in an aquatic environment.

“I’m not
saying [younger teens] can’t physically do the job,”
Osinski says. “They might be able to pass a certification
course.” But it’s the ever-present capability of
responding without emotions in a real-life, not simulated, crisis
that she worries about. “I’ve trained 12-year-olds as
lifeguards, but that doesn’t mean I’d hire
them.”

Is it worth it?

But Osinski’s
ideal 18-year-old minimum would cause increased employment
shortages across the board, many industry experts warn. “If
guards have to be 18, you pretty much kill all your foundation and
recruitment,” Madani says. People age 18 and up tend to seek
jobs in the areas of their desired professions, such as working in
a hospital or at an office to broaden their résumés.
“There are so many jobs open to college kids, it’s
unbelievable,” he says.

Conversely, few jobs
other than lifeguarding allow 15-year-olds to be
employed.

But Osinski and
others say the responsibility and the pay don’t match up.
“For $6 an hour? You have to take 30 to 40 hours of training
before you even get the job, and then we expect [guards] to be
responsible for all kinds of things,” Osinski points
out.

But lifeguard wages
compete with hourly jobs such as retail and food service, not with
other professional jobs, according to Carroll. “Plain facts
are that older kids look for a higher wage, and lifeguard wages
don’t fit into the category for them,” he says. But as
the youths move up in the ranks, they also move up the pay scale,
which is an attractive incentive. He also says it’s difficult
to draw in older candidates because of the job’s
seasonality.

For beachfront
lifeguards, 16 is the minimum age, and many employers require
applicants to be at least 18. The higher pay and benefits package
for such guards attract more job applicants, says Chris Brewster,
president of United States Lifesaving Association in San Diego. He
calls the lifeguard shortage at pools and waterparks
“bogus.”

“Whenever
anybody says there’s a lifeguard shortage, it’s because
you’re not willing to provide the pay and benefits necessary
to attract the number of lifeguards you need,” he says.
Beaches and waterfronts don’t have that problem because their
pay is comparable to other professional jobs.

By staggering
starting wages according to age, it’s often possible to get
older candidates. In Austin, 15-year-old guards start at $6.50 an
hour; 16-year-olds at $7.50; and 17 and up begin at $8.25. However,
others say that pay doesn’t always drive teens to choose one
job over another. “If you pay $100,000 to each lifeguard, you
could have your pick,” concedes Rick Root, president of the
World Waterpark Association in Overland Park, Kan. But paying them
less doesn’t make them less qualified, he adds.

Liability considerations

Maybe not, but relying on younger, low-wage workers may leave facilities open to
more liability. In a courtroom, teens under 18 are still protected
by their parents, Madani says. “On a legal level, the
attorney can’t drill them as hard if something happens
— because they’re young.”

Griffiths says otherwise. “When there’s a drowning and a resulting
lawsuit, the plaintiff’s attorney just loves to have
15-year-olds on duty. Their approach is, ‘How could you give
this responsibility to a 15-year-old?’ If it’s a
15-year-old who responds or doesn’t respond, they make that a
key to the case.”

Whenever a drowning
occurs at a waterpark, the community often reacts by accusing the
park for hiring such a young person. Others blame parents for using
lifeguards as babysitters. The problem, some say, is that many
teens and facility patrons treat lifeguarding merely as a summer
job. A study Griffiths conducted asked lifeguards what they
considered their roles to be. The answers differed by age: Those
who were 20 and older saw themselves as educators and professionals
who prevent accidents. Those under 19 compared their positions to
babysitting.

The other problem is
that the industry considers these young guards to be professional
rescuers, Griffiths says. “That’s something that gets
us into trouble. We’re so proud of our training that we
elevate these people to professional status at only 15 years of
age,” he says. “Do you know any other professional
people who can attain professional status at 15 years of
age?”

Such rhetorical
questions expose the deep divide that remains over 15-year-old
guards. But professionals and experts seem to agree on one thing:
Knowing who’s ready to serve is ultimately a judgment
call.

“The ones who
tell me they’re scared are the ones I know are mature enough
to handle the job,” says Water World’s Robin Patrick.
“If they’re not a little scared, they don’t
realize what kind of responsibility they’ve got on their
hands.”